Born in Warsaw and raised in London. Aside from running OFF_ Press, Marek is a writer, translator and film-maker. He is also a trustee of Not Shut Up, a prison literary magazine and Apart Arts, a migrant artists' association which has worked with the Southbank Centre, Polish Cultural Institute, the Mayor of London and various other arts and civic organisations.
Submission Date:
22 Jan 2012
Category:
Introduction
In Chap-book
Title:
OFF_PRESS and Contemporary Polish Poetry
Excerpt:
In a country which has seen only a decade or two of peace in the past quarter of a millennium, Polish poets are still seen as sages and saviours, rather than nice sorts who “dabble in verse”. Because literature was for many generations the only way to speak freely about freedom, and also because the Communists invested heavily in arts and culture, Poland still has an inordinately large number of literary publications, prizes, festivals and presses to tempt the young into writing.
Born in 1984. Poet, writer, author of the volume Zapaść (Biblioteka Arterii, Łódź 2009; awarded special prize at the tenth edition of the PTWK Prize in the Début of the Year category, short-tlisted for the Wroclaw Silesius Prize) and Nawroty (WBPiCAK, Poznań 2010; short-listed for the Nike Prize). Winner of numerous national poetry competitions. In 2007, she received the Grand Prix in the VI edition of the im. R. M. Rilkego Prize in Sopot and the main prize in the XIII edition of the im. Jacka Bierezina Prize in Lodz. She has been published widely. Her work has been included in the latest anthology of contemporary Polish poetry Poeci na nowy wiek (Biuro Literackie,Wrocław 2010). Originally from Rzeszow, currently living and working in Krakow.
Submission Date:
22 Jan 2012
Category:
Poetry
In Chap-book
Title:
Only Then and other poems
Excerpt:
Winds blowing in sparks, leaves trembling with dew. I must have borne disquiet within me already; like a child, growing below the heart, meanwhile March was turning into despair. Everything cracking in such lovely fashion: the streets and the sky, our bodies stuck with saliva. Flashes slicing the air like paper, blood flowing from stems...
Born 1982. Poet, writer, blogger, author of the poetry volume Viedenski High Life (Portret, 2009) which received the prestigious 2010 Wroclaw Silesius Prize and was shortlisted for the Gdynia Literarture Prize the same year. His debut collection has recently been published in English translation as Vienna High Life (OFF_PRESS 2011).
Submission Date:
22 Jan 2012
Category:
Poetry
In Chap-book
Title:
Biblical Figures and other poems
Excerpt:
this coincidence has a name: the perpetrator will soon enough alter you and me and then puddles will fall and we'll pretend we're carl lewis when he won his fourth medal at the olympics imagine longing for something so bad you die...
Born in 1974. Poet and author of short stories. In 2006 she left Poland and moved to the UK, where she currently resides in the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight. She has published six poetry volumes: Wyobraźnia kontrolowana (Częstochowa 1998), Parantele (Częstochowa 2003), Orinoko (Tychy 2008), Inne obroty (Toronto – Rzeszów 2010), Ruchy Browna (Częstochowa 2011), Smena’s Memory (London 2011). Her poems have been translated into English.
Submission Date:
22 Jan 2012
Category:
Poetry
In Chap-book
Title:
Spring, 1986 and other poems
Excerpt:
At night, the Chernobyl cloud fell on our pastures. Thyroids swelled. The pond aglow with murmuring iodine. Swallows kissing crooked mirrors...
Born 1984 in Gdansk, he published his first collection of poems The Crossing in 2008, then Eine Kleine Todesmusik in 2009 and Weaken in 2010. Member of the group Trupa Trupa. Shortlisted for the prestigious Politika Passports twice (2009 and 2010). Winner of the Young Artist of the Year in Gdansk (2009), the Splendor Gedanesis Prize (2011) and the Artistic Award from the Gdansk Association of Friends of the Arts. Beneficiary of the Grazella Foundation Scholarship (2009), the City of Gdansk Scholarship (2010) and the Mayor of the Pomeranian District Scholarship (2011). Winner of numerous national poetry competitions and prizes, he has been widely published. All three of his books have recently been published as a collected trilogy called Should Not Have Been Born in English translation by OFF_PRESS, London.
Submission Date:
22 Jan 2012
Category:
Poetry
In Chap-book
Title:
Crown and other poems
Excerpt:
I was saved from death by a gold tooth crown which you fitted half a year ago after I visited Monsieur T...
Born 1946 in Mikolowo. Author of five volumes of poetry, Dożywocie (1994), Pan Bóg wyjechał na Florydę (1997), Pochylenie (2002), Czuły nóż (2006), Ostateczny smak truskawek (2009), the collections i wtedy minie twoja gorączka (2010), Performance (2011) and the translated Něžný nůž (2011) published in Czech by Protimluv. Her work has also been translated into Slovene, German, English and Russian. She has been widely published in leading literary Polish periodicals. Radio Katowice has adapted her poems for a series of radio plays. In 2006, and again in 2012, she received the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage grant. Lives in Mikolowo.
Submission Date:
22 Jan 2012
Category:
Poetry
In Chap-book
Title:
Girl Women and other poems
Excerpt:
you take the leather gloves off the steering wheel touch me thinking two way streets
at the petrol station you ask for directions while fire burns across me in the car...
Born 1980 in Zamosc. He studied philosophy and literature in Lublin. His poetry has been published in, among others, Kresy, Studium and FA-art. He is currently living and working in Bournemouth, UK. Winner of various literary prizes, including three times winner of the audience award in the Jacek Bierezin Literary Prize. In 2011, he published his own collection Przeklęte dusze pcheł. 2012 should see his official debut, published by Instytut Mikołowski in Poland.
Submission Date:
22 Jan 2012
Category:
Poetry
In Chap-book
Title:
Ashbery Mix and other poems
Excerpt:
Keep telling it over and over, like an old, well worn joke. Keep telling it like a story from a poem you cannot recite. Keep telling it when you are alone, outside, against the breeze, in worn-through trousers or at home, where someone else sees...
Born1984. Poet, critic, proof-reader and editor of the quarterly journal of poetry and literary arts Arterie and the on-line service, Poezja-Polska. His publications include the chapbook Przymiarki (Literary Bureau, Wroclaw, 2009) and the bilingual poetry collection WYCIECZKI OSOBISTE / CODE OF CHANGE (OFF_PRESS, London 2011). His poetry has been published in various literary magazines and anthologies. He lives in Lodz.
Submission Date:
22 Jan 2012
Category:
Poetry
In Chap-book
Title:
Second Hand Bookshop. Bordello and other poems
Excerpt:
Which frightens you more: contemporary poetry or contemporary women? You've been at this a year or two too long. From the very start
your opinions set and prejudices amassed, all best quoted in pounds, weighed in words...
Born 1991 in Warsaw. He is studying History at the Cardinal Wyszyński University. His poems have been published in PKP Zin, Odra and Lampa. From time to time he takes part in poetry slams. A follower of coffee and paper, Seweryn can usually be found sitting at home, his torso bared, feeling past his sell-by best. He believes that which is most important lies somewhere between a book, an idea and a woman. But please, don't ask exactly where.
Submission Date:
22 Jan 2012
Category:
Poetry
In Chap-book
Title:
Bosporus and other poems
Excerpt:
Constantinople is on beautiful fire today, but it isn't opening fire, of the touch between flame and sensitive, urban wood; the freshness poisoned by smoke. I study the date through crystal, at a safe indifference, an etched turn of phrase on my lips, with the first headline word...
Born 1987. Author of the volumes Passe-partout (Warszawa 2006) and Współgłoski (Nowa Ruda 2010). Co-creates the poetry & music project, Elektroliryka. Currently mastering in Western and Southern Slavonic Studies at the University of Warsaw. Her poems have also been translated into Czech, Swedish, Ukrainian and English. She also translates contemporary Czech and Slovak poetry. She can usually be found living in Warsaw.
Submission Date:
22 Jan 2012
Category:
Poetry
In Chap-book
Title:
* and other poems
Excerpt:
women and children with their faces on the floor, men returning years later. They hold bottles filled with petrol, their heads high. Ordered, but without vocals. They mistake hunger for desire, transparent they spit pips from the most recent spring...
Born 1986. Her work has appeared in numerous literary publications (including Akcent, Czas Kultury, Portret and Twórczośc). Her début collection sturm & drang appeared at the end of 2010 and her poems have been translated into English and Hungarian. Gry losowe, her first novel, is being serialised by the publisher/portal Ha!art. She lives in Krakow.
Submission Date:
22 Jan 2012
Category:
Poetry
In Chap-book
Title:
Visa and other poems
Excerpt:
Supermarket Elea, and the cashier who is called Zenon with calm stoicism gives me the change for my beers (so we can live better), cigarettes (so we can live shorter) and condoms (so we don't have to live at all)...
Contact me